Kinshasa was a village on the south bank of the Congo when Stanley passed through in 1877. He returned in 1881 and established Leopoldville on the banks of contemporary Kintambo and Ngaliema. A post was opened upriver at Kinshasa in 1883. In 1923 Leopoldville was named the capital, comprising both Kinshasa and Leopoldville, established at Kalina (now Gombe), while "old" Leopoldville remained the capital of the Province. The Leopoldville-Kinshasa agglomeration was renamed Kinshasa in 1966.

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Sunday, October 8, 2017

In the
1920s, the two lots on Ave. des Aviateurs, where the US and Portuguese
Embassies now stand, was a football pitch facing Sainte Anne cathedral. During
the dry season, teams comprised of the European employees of local companies
would compete in the cool of the afternoon. At Ste. Anne, at this time as well,
Father Raphael de la Kethulle de Ryhove (Tata Raphael) was beginning to
organize Congolese teams to play the newly-imported sport (See Feb. 6, 2011).

Looming
over the southwest corner of the field was a handsome two-story commercial
building belonging to the Société Equatoriale Congolaise Lulonga-Ikelemba – the
“Equatoriale” or SECLI. Founded in July 1910, the Equatoriale was primarily engaged in
exploiting extensive plantations in Equateur province from its headquarters at
Wendji, outside of the provincial capital of Coquilhatville (Mbandaka). In Graham Greene’s 1961 novel, “A Burnt-Out
Case”, the conflicted architect, Querry, visits the palm-oil plantation from
his refuge at the nearby leprosarium of Iyonda. The Equatoriale also sought to establish itself in retail trade (known
as comptoirs or factoreries at the time) and opened the retail store on Ave. des
Aviateurs in the developing commercial center of Kinshasa in the late 1910s.
Subsequently, it opened a store across the river in Brazzaville in 1925 to take
advantage of developing economic opportunities in the French colony. SECLI was instrumental
in introducing the American firm, L.C. Gillespie & Sons to Congo, which in
addition to its store in Leopoldville, also developed plantations at Inganda
near SECLI’s operation at Wendji (See Mar.14, 2012).

On
the same triangular lot formed by Avenues Aviateurs and Commerce (later Bousin,
now Isiro), the Sedec company (Société des Entreprises Commerciales au Congo
Belge, formed in October 1913 by the Lever Brothers interests), built an Art
Deco commercial building next to the Equatoriale
store.Initially the showroom of Sedec
Motors, the store was later repurposed as a grocery and department store in the
1950s after the renamed automobile agency, Agence Commercial Automobile (ACA), moved
to Ave. Van Gele (Lukusa). Sedec, as a commercial proposition, did not survive
the Zairianization and break up of Lever Brothers interests in the 1970s.Operating for a while as “Select” in the
1990s, the moribund store was reopened by Hasson Africa in 2005.

Sedec Motors looking down Ave. des Aviateurs.

The Sedec store in the mid-1950s. Note open courtyard in the center of the triangular building.

Hasson Africa building.

Hasson
Freres was originally established at Luputa in Kasai Province in 1936 by Leon
Hasson, part of a diaspora of several thousand Sephardic Jews who operated
retail, wholesale and industrial businesses from Leopoldville, across the Kasai
to Elisabethville and throughout eastern Congo. In 1946, Hasson moved to
Leopoldville and opened Au Chic, one of the first stores in the capital to
serve both European and Congolese customers (See Mar. 19, 2011). Primarily engaged in commercial
activities serving the Congolese market, the firm weathered the “Pillages” of
the 1990s and in 2005, as Hasson Africa, the reopened the old Sedec property on
Ave. des Aviateurs.Interestingly, the
company sought to develop the store as a mall, with a number of private vendors,
including SOGENAC (formerly Jules Van Lancker cattle ranch located at Kolo in
Kongo Central), La Petite Epicerie for fresh produce, as well as a series of boutiques
and cafes on the mezzanine, including Cosmopolite, Restaurant Zamani and Le
Petit Café.

Cafe Mozart. Note mezzanine level and skylight above.

Zamani Restaurant on the upper level.

Le Petit Cafe has a daily Congolese menu for $10.

Within
the last year, the old SECLI store, operating as Le Chateau restaurant in the
1980s, was demolished and Hasson Freres acquired the space to expand storage
facilities for the main complex.At the
beginning of September, another Hasson Freres tenant opened “Le Pergola” in the
narrow space along Ave. des Aviateurs opposite the US Embassy. The restaurant offers sandwiches and salads
and a playground for kids and cages along the wall with rabbits and parrots.
The name “Pergola” brought to mind among old timers a popular restaurant of the
1960s on the Boulevard where the BCDC bank tower is today (See June 28, 2011). The
proprietor knows about the former Pergola, “I’ve been told about it”, but did
not seem particularly interested or curious.She has her own marketing to do and it is focused on youth and their
parents, not the past.

Le Chateau in the mid-2000s, no longer a restaurant.

The new Pergola with Sozacom Building in background.

The Pergola restaurant, dining al fresco.

Blvd. du 30 Juin. The earlier Pergola to the right of the apartment building.

The
loss of colonial era structures is a complicated issue considering that Congolese
do not have a strong affinity for the relics of the era, market demand for
developable properties in Gombe Commune is huge and there is no regulatory preservation
framework in place. Nor is the general
public consulted or even aware of an owner’s business decision to demolish a
structure that might have historical or architectural importance. It is not my
place as a guest in the country to advocate for a preservationist agenda, so
until an opportunity presents itself, I must content myself with documenting
the past through this blog or prefacing a stop on a historical and
architectural tour with, “on this site once stood…”